Lecture 11: Machine Learning

class: center, middle, inverse, title-slide

.title[
# Lecture 11: Machine Learning
]
.subtitle[
## Tree-Based Machine Learning Methods
]
.author[
### James Sears* AFRE 891 SS24 Michigan State University
]
.date[
### .small[ *Parts of these slides are adapted from <a href="https://github.com/edrubin/EC524W23/tree/master">“Prediction and Machine-Learning in Econometrics”</a> by Ed Rubin, used under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0</a>.]
]

---

exclude: true

---

# Table of Contents

**Part 3: Tree-Based Methods**

1. [Decision Trees](#trees)

1. [Random Forests](#forests)

**Part 4: Generalized Random Forests**

1. [Machine Learning for Causal Treatment Effect Estimation](#causal)

1. [Deep Learning (if time - not a tree method)](#deep)

---

# Prologue

Packages we'll use today:

```r
pacman::p_load(grf, janitor, magrittr, parsnip, ranger, rpart, rpart.plot, 
               rsample, scales, tidymodels, tidyverse, vip)
```

As well, let's use two datasets:

* The ISL default data again
  * Heart disease data

```r
default_df <- ISLR::Default

heart_df <- read_csv("data/Heart.csv") %>%
 dplyr::select(-1) %>%
 rename(HeartDisease = AHD) %>%
 clean_names()
```

---

# Prologue

Throughout our econometric training, we've become experts in predicting an outcome by writing down a model with a .hi-blue[specific functional form] for the relationship between `$\color{#7BBD00}{\mathbf{y}}$` and  `$\color{#6A5ACD}{\mathbf{X}}$`.

.hi-medgrn[Decision Trees] (or classification and regression trees, CART) are a supervised learning method that offers an alternative, .hi-medgrn[data-driven] way of generating predictions by partitioning the covariate space into groups and using the grouping to generate predictions.

After working through decision trees, we'll shift our focus to .hi-green[forest methods] that combine many, many trees to overcome drawbacks of individual trees and yield predictions of alternate objects - including heterogeneous treatment effects.

---
class: inverse, middle
name: trees

# 🌲 Decision Trees 🌲

---

#	Decision Trees: Punchline

.hi-medgrn[Goal]
- Split the .it[predictor space] (our `$\color{#6A5ACD}{\mathbf{X}}$`) into regions (partitions)
- Predict the most-common value within a region

.hi-medgrn[Attributes of Decision Trees]
1. Work for .hi-purple[both classification and regression]

--
1. Are inherently .hi-green[nonlinear]

--
1. Are relatively .hi-pink[simple] and  .hi-pink[interpretable]

--
1. Often .hi-blue[underperform] relative to competing methods

--
1. easily extend to .hi-red[very competitive ensemble methods] (forests with *many* trees).super[🌲]

.footnote[
🌲 Though the ensembles will be much less interpretable.
]

---

#	Growing Decision Trees

.hi-blue[1\. Divide the predictor space] into `$J$` regions (using predictors `$\mathbf{x}_1,\ldots,\mathbf{x}_p$`)

--
  
  * .hi-pink[Regression Trees:] Choose the regions to .hi-green[minimize RSS] across all `$J$` regions 
  
$$
`\begin{align}
  \sum_{j=1}^{J} \left( y_i - \hat{y}_{R_j} \right)^2
\end{align}`
$$

---

#	Growing Decision Trees: Steps

.hi-blue[1\. Divide the predictor space] into `$J$` regions (using predictors `$\mathbf{x}_1,\ldots,\mathbf{x}_p$`)

* .hi-pink[Classification Trees:] Choose the regions to .hi-green[minimize Gini index] or .hi-green[Entropy]

.pull-left[
$$
`\begin{align}
   G = \sum_{k=1}^{K} \hat{p}_{mk} \left( 1 - \hat{p}_{mk} \right)
\end{align}`
$$
]

.pull-right[
$$
`\begin{align}
  Entropy = - \sum_{k=1}^{K} \hat{p}_{mk} \log \left( \hat{p}_{mk} \right)
\end{align}`
$$
]

* Keep splitting until a specified threshold is reached (e.g. at most 5 observations per region)

---
# Classification Tree

.hi-medgrn[Q:] Why are we using the Gini index or entropy (*vs.* error rate)?

.hi-medgrn[A:] The error rate isn't sufficiently sensitive to grow good trees.
 The Gini index and entropy tell us about the .hi-blue[composition] of the leaf.

Consider two different leaves in a three-level classification.

.pull-left[
.center.hi-slate[Leaf 1]
- .b[A:] 51, .b[B:] 49, .b[C:] 00
- .hi-orange[Error rate:] 49%
- .hi-purple[Gini index:] 0.4998
- .hi-pink[Entropy:] 0.6929
]

.pull-right[
.center.hi-slate[Leaf 2]
- .b[A:] 51, .b[B:] 25, .b[C:] 24
- .hi-orange[Error rate:] 49%
- .hi-purple[Gini index:] 0.6198
- .hi-pink[Entropy:] 1.0325
]

.clear-up[
The .hi-purple[Gini index] and .hi-pink[entropy] tell us about the distribution.
]

---

#	Growing Decision Trees: Steps

.hi-blue[2\. Make predictions] using the regions' mean outcome.

For region `$R_j$` predict `$\hat{y}_{R_j}$` where
$$
`\begin{align}
  \hat{y}_{R_j} = \frac{1}{n_j} \sum_{i\in R_j} y
\end{align}`
$$

---
#	Growing Decision Trees

Let's visualize this by growing a classification tree for predicting credit card defaults based on income and card balances.

---
#	Growing Decision Trees

Consider our two-dimensional covariate space:

---
#	Growing Decision Trees

The .hi-pink[first partition] splits balance at $1,800.

---
#	Growing Decision Trees

The .hi-pink[second partition] splits balance at $1,972, (.it[conditional on bal. > $1,800]).

<img src="data:image/png;base64,#ML-Trees_files/figure-html/plot-split2-1.png" width="88%" style="display: block; margin: auto;" />
---
#	Growing Decision Trees

The .hi-pink[third partition] splits income at $27K .b[for] bal. between $1,800 and $1,972.

---
#	Growing Decision Trees

These three partitions give us four .hi-pink[regions]...

---
#	Growing Decision Trees

.hi-pink[Predictions] cover each region (e.g. using the region's .hi-pink[most common class]).

---
#	Growing Decision Trees

.hi-pink[Predictions] cover each region (e.g. using the region's .hi-pink[most common class]).

---
#	Growing Decision Trees

.hi-pink[Predictions] cover each region (e.g. using the region's .hi-pink[most common class]).

---
#	Growing Decision Trees

.hi-pink[Predictions] cover each region (e.g. using the region's .hi-pink[most common class]).

---
# Visualizing the Decision Tree

.hi-medgrn[Q:] Why do we call it a tree?

.hi-medgrn[A:] Because we can easily represent this partitioning process in the form of a .hi-pink[decision tree!]

---
# Visualizing the Decision Tree

Our first split occurs at a Balance of $1800:

.clear-space[

]

.center[
<img src = "images/tree1.svg" width = "600" /img>
]

---
# Visualizing the Decision Tree

If Balance > 1800 Is False, we get our first region:

.clear-space[

]

.center[
<img src = "images/tree2.svg" width = "600" /img>
]

---
# Visualizing the Decision Tree

If Balance < 1800 Is True, we next split on Balance < 1,972

.clear-space[

]

.center[
<img src = "images/tree3.svg" width = "600" /img>
]

---
# Visualizing the Decision Tree

If False, we get our second terminal node (76% default)

.clear-space[

]

.center[
<img src = "images/tree4.svg" width = "600" /img>
]

---
# Visualizing the Decision Tree

If True, we get our final split at Income > 27,000

.clear-space[

]

.center[
<img src = "images/tree5.svg" width = "600" /img>
]

---
# Decision Tree Anatomy

The .hi-pink[regions] correspond to the tree's .hi-pink[terminal nodes] (or .hi-pink[leaves])

.clear-space[

]

.center[
<img src = "images/tree6.svg" width = "600" /img>
]

---
# Decision Tree Anatomy

The graph's .hi-pink[separating lines] correspond to the tree's .hi-pink[internal nodes]

.clear-space[

]

.center[
<img src = "images/tree7.svg" width = "600" /img>
]

---
# Decision Tree Anatomy

The segments connecting the nodes are the tree's .hi-pink[branches]

.clear-space[

]

.center[
<img src = "images/tree8.svg" width = "600" /img>
]

---
# Growing The Tree

.hi-medgrn[Problem:] Examining every possible partition (every .pink[cutoff] `$\color{#e64173}{s}$` of every .purple[predictor] `$\color{#6A5ACD}{\mathbf{x}_j}$`) is .hi-medgrn[computationally infeasible.]

.hi-blue[Solution:] a top-down, *greedy* algorithm named .hi-blue[recursive binary splitting]

* .hi-blue[Recursive:] starts with the "best" split, then find the next "best" split, etc.

* .hi-blue[Binary:] each split creates only two branches: "yes" and "no"

* .hi-blue[Greedy:] each step makes the "best" split without consideration for the overall process

---
# Splitting Example

Consider the dataset

With just three observations, each variable only has two actual splits..super[🌲]

.footnote[
🌲 You can think about cutoffs as the ways we divide observations into two groups.
]

---
# Splitting Example

One possible split: x.sub[1] at 2, which yields .purple[(.b[1]) x.sub[1] < 2] .it[vs.] .pink[(.b[2]) x.sub[1] ≥ 2]

---
# Splitting Example

One possible split: x.sub[1] at 2, which yields .purple[(.b[1]) x.sub[1] < 2] .it[vs.] .pink[(.b[2]) x.sub[1] ≥ 2]

This split yields an RSS of .purple[0.super[2]] + .pink[1.super[2]] + .pink[(-1).super[2]] = 2.

.note[Note.sub[1]] Splitting x.sub[1] at 2 yields the same results as 1.5, 2.5—anything in (1, 3).

---
# Splitting Example

An alternative split: x.sub[1] at 4, which yields .purple[(.b[1]) x.sub[1] < 4] .it[vs.] .pink[(.b[2]) x.sub[1] ≥ 4]

This split yields an RSS of .purple[(-4).super[2]] + .purple[4.super[2]] + .pink[0.super[2]] = 32.

.it[Previous:] Splitting x.sub[1] at 4 yielded RSS = 2. .it.grey-light[(Much better)]

---
# Splitting Example

Another split: x.sub[2] at 3, which yields .purple[(.b[1]) x.sub[1] < 3] .it[vs.] .pink[(.b[2]) x.sub[1] ≥ 3]

This split yields an RSS of .pink[(-3).super[2]] + .purple[0.super[2]] + .pink[3.super[2]] = 18.

---
# Splitting Example

Final split: x.sub[2] at 5, which yields .purple[(.b[1]) x.sub[1] < 5] .it[vs.] .pink[(.b[2]) x.sub[1] ≥ 5]

This split yields an RSS of .pink[(-4).super[2]] + .pink[4.super[2]] + .purple[0.super[2]] = 32.

---
# Splitting Example

Across our four possible splits (two variables each with two splits)
- x.sub[1] with a cutoff of 2: .b[RSS] = 2
- x.sub[1] with a cutoff of 4: .b[RSS] = 32
- x.sub[2] with a cutoff of 3: .b[RSS] = 18
- x.sub[2] with a cutoff of 5: .b[RSS] = 32

our split of x.sub[1] at 2 generates the lowest RSS.

---
# Splitting

.note[Note:] Categorical predictors work in exactly the same way.
 We want to try .b[all possible combinations] of the categories.

.ex[Ex:] For a four-level categorical predictor (levels: A, B, C, D)

.clear-up[
we would need to try 7 possible splits.
]

---
# Splitting

Once we make our a split, we then continue splitting,
 .b[conditional] on the regions from our previous splits.

So if our first split creates R.sub[1] and R.sub[2], then our next split
 searches the predictor space only in R.sub[1] or R.sub[2]..super[🌲]

.footnote[
🌲 We are no longer searching the full space—it is conditional on the previous splits.
]

The tree continue to .b[grow until] it hits some specified threshold,
 _e.g._, at most 5 observations in each leaf.

---
# Too many Splits?

One can have .hi-blue[too many splits.]

.hi-medgrn[Q:] Why?

.hi-medgrn[A:] "More splits" means

1. more flexibility (think about the bias-variance tradeoff/overfitting)

1. less interpretability (one of the selling points for trees)

.hi-medgrn[Q:] So what can we do?

.hi-medgrn[A:] Prune your trees!

---
# Pruning

.hi-medgrn[The idea:] Some regions may increase .hi[variance] more than they reduce .hi[bias].

* By removing these regions, we gain in test MSE.

.hi-medgrn[Candidates for trimming:] Regions that do not .b[reduce RSS] very much.

.hi-medgrn[Updated strategy:] Grow big trees `$T_0$` and then trim `$T_0$` to an optimal .attn[subtree].

.hi-medgrn[Updated problem:] Considering all possible subtrees can get expensive.

---
# Pruning

.hi-medgrn[Updated solution:] add a penalty for complexity with .hi-medgrn[cost-complexity pruning]
  * Pay a penalty to become more complex with a greater number of regions `$|T|$`

For regression trees.super[1]:

$$
`\begin{align}
  \sum_{m=1}^{|T|} \sum_{i:x\in R_m} \left( y_i - \hat{y}_{R_m} \right)^2 + \alpha |T|
\end{align}`
$$

For any value of `$\alpha (\ge 0)$`, we get a subtree `$T\subset T_0$`.

We choose `$\alpha$` via cross validation.

.footnote[
1 For classification trees we instead penalize the error rate
]

---
# Decision Trees in R

To train decision trees in R, we'll  use .hi-slate[tidymodels] (and several others) for modeling and machine learning using .hi-slate[tidyverse] principles.super[2]

.footnote[2\. [tidymodels](https://www.tidymodels.org/) allow you to do a *ton* of stuff that we're just scratching the surface of.]

Let's first set the seed and define our cross-validation with `vfold_cv` from .hi-slate[rsample]
  * `v` the number of folds (here we'll use 5)

```r
# Define our CV split
set.seed(12345)
default_cv <- default_df %>% vfold_cv(v = 5)
```

---
# Decision Trees in R

Next, let's use the `decision_tree()` function from .hi-slate[parsnip] to set up the parameters of the tree:

- `mode`: `"regression"` or `"classification"`
- `cost_complexity`: the cost (penalty) paid for complexity
- `tree_depth`: *max.* tree depth (max. number of splits in a "branch")
- `min_n`: *min.* # of observations for a node to split
- Use the .hi-slate[rpart] "engine" to grow the tree

```r
# Define the decision tree
default_tree <- decision_tree(
 mode = "classification", #
 cost_complexity = tune(),
 tree_depth = tune(),
 min_n = 10 # Arbitrarily choosing '10' 
) %>% set_engine("rpart")
```

---
# Decision Trees in R

Next, use `recipe()` to build a recipe describing the formula/data

```r
# Define recipe
default_recipe <- recipe(default ~ ., data = default_df)
```
--

And define the workflow, first adding the model then the recipe

```r
# Define the workflow
default_flow <- workflow() %>%
 add_model(default_tree) %>% add_recipe(default_recipe)
```
---
# Decision Trees in R

Lastly, execute the workflow through cross-validation!

```r
# Tune!
default_cv_fit <- default_flow %>% tune_grid(
 default_cv,
 grid = expand_grid(
 cost_complexity = seq(0, 0.15, by = 0.01),
 tree_depth = c(1, 2, 5, 10),
 ),
 metrics = metric_set(accuracy, roc_auc)
)
```
---
# Decision Trees in R

Plotting

```r
ggplot(
  data = default_cv_fit %>% collect_metrics() %>% filter(.metric == "accuracy"),
  aes(
    x = cost_complexity,
    y = mean,
    color = tree_depth %>% factor(levels = c(1,2,5,10), ordered = T),
    shape = tree_depth %>% factor(levels = c(1,2,5,10), ordered = T)
  )
) +
geom_line(linewidth = 0.4) +
geom_point(size = 3, alpha = 0.8) +
scale_y_continuous("Accuracy") +
scale_x_continuous("Cost complexity") +
scale_color_viridis_d("Tree depth") +
scale_shape_manual("Tree depth", values = c(1, 18, 15, 20)) +
theme_minimal(base_size = 16) +
theme(legend.position = "bottom")
```

---
# Decision Trees in R

.hi-slate[To plot the CV-chosen tree...]

1\. .hi-pink[Fit] the chosen/best model with  `finalize_workflow()` and `select_best()`

```r
best_flow <- 
 default_flow %>% 
 finalize_workflow(select_best(default_cv_fit, metric = "accuracy")) %>%
 fit(data = default_df)
```

2\. .hi-purple[Extract] the fitted model with `extract_fit_parsnip()`

```r
best_tree <- best_flow %>% extract_fit_parsnip()
```

---
# Decision Trees in R

3\. .hi-red[Plot] the tree with `rpart.plot()` from .hi-slate[rpart.plot].

```r
best_tree$fit %>% rpart.plot()
```

---
# Decision Trees in R

The previous tree has cost complexity of 0.03 (and a max. depth of 5).

We can compare this "best" tree to a less pruned/penalized tree

- `cost_complexity = 0.005`
- `tree_depth = 5`

---
# Decision Trees in R

---
# Decision Trees vs. Linear Models

.center[
.hi-medgrn[Q] How do trees compare to linear models?]

.center[
.hi-medgrn[A] It depends how linear the true boundary is.
]

---
# Linear Boundary

.pull-left.center[.hi-medgrn[Linear models] recreate the line]

.pull-right.center[.hi-blue[trees] struggle at replicating linearity]
<img src="data:image/png;base64,#images/compare-linear.png" width="80%" style="display: block; margin: auto;" />

.ex.small[Source: ISL, p. 315]

---
# Nonlinear Bounday

.pull-left.center[.hi-medgrn[Linear models] struggle with nonlinear boundaries]

.pull-right.center[.hi-blue[trees] easily replicate these relationships]

.ex.small[Source: ISL, p. 315]

---
# Strengths and weaknesses

As with any method, decision trees have .hi-medgrn[tradeoffs].

.pull-left.purple.font90[
.hi-purple.center[Strengths]
 .b[+] Easily explained/interpretted
 .b[+] Include several graphical options
 .b[+] Mirror human decision making?
 .b[+] Handle num. or cat. on LHS/RHS
]

.pull-right.pink.font90[
.hi-pink.center[Weaknesses]
 .b[-] Outperformed by other methods
 .b[-] Struggle with linearity
 .b[-] Can be very "non-robust" - small data changes can cause huge changes in our tree
]

.note[Next:] Create ensembles of trees.super[🌲] to strengthen these weaknesses..super[🌴] with...

.footnote[
🌲 Forests! 🌴 Which will also weaken some of the strengths.
]

---
class: inverse, middle
name: forests

# 🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳 Random Forests 🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳

---
# Random Forests

.hi-medgrn[The gist:] combine many individual trees into a single .hi-medgrn[forest] via .hi-pink[bootstrap aggregation (bagging)]

.hi-pink[Bagging:]

1. Create `$B$` bootstrapped samples

1. Train an estimator (tree) `$\color{#6A5ACD}{\mathop{\hat{f^b}}(x)}$` on each of the `$B$` samples

1. Aggregate across your `$B$` bootstrapped models:
$$
`\begin{align}
  \color{#e64173}{\mathop{\hat{f}_{\text{bag}}}(x)} = \dfrac{1}{B}\sum_{b=1}^{B}\color{#6A5ACD}{\mathop{\hat{f^b}}(x)}
\end{align}`
$$

This aggregated model `$\color{#e64173}{\mathop{\hat{f}_{\text{bag}}}(x)}$` is your final model.

---
# Bagging

When we apply bagging to decision trees,

- We typically .hi-pink[grow the trees deep and do not prune]

- For .hi-purple[regression], we .hi-purple[average] across the `$B$` trees' regions

- For .hi-purple[classification], we have more options—but often take .hi-purple[plurality]

.hi-pink[Individual] (unpruned) trees will be very .hi-pink[flexible] and .hi-pink[noisy],
 but their .hi-purple[aggregate] will be quite .hi-purple[stable].

---
# Out-of-Bag Error

Bagging also offers a convenient method for evaluating performance.

For any bootstrapped sample, we omit ∼n/3 observations.

.hi-pink[Out-of-bag (OOB) error estimation] estimates the test error rate using observations .hi-medgrn[randomly omitted] from each bootstrapped sample.

For each observation `$i$`:

1. Find all samples `$S_i$` in which `$i$` was omitted from training.

1. Aggregate the `$|S_i|$` predictions `$\color{#6A5ACD}{\mathop{\hat{f^b}}(x_i)}$`, _e.g._, using their mean or mode

1. Calculate the error, _e.g._, `$y_i - \mathop{\hat{f}_{i,\text{OOB},i}}(x_i)$`

---
# Out-of-Bag Error

When `$B$` is big enough, the OOB error rate will be very close to LOOCV.

.hi-medgrn[Q:] Why use OOB error rate?

.hi-medgrn[A:] When `$B$` and `$n$` are large, cross validation—with any number of folds—can become pretty computationally intensive.

---
# Random Forests

.hi-medgrn[Random forests] overcome a major shortcoming of bagging: .hi-pink[very correlated trees]

* Since trees consider all predictors at every split of every tree, the trees will often be highly related.

.hi-medgrn[Solution:] decorrelate the trees!

* Only consider a .hi-pink[random subset] of `$\color{#e64173}{m\enspace (\approx\sqrt{p})}$` .pink[predictors] when making each split (for each tree)

--
  
  * This nudges trees away from always using the same variables, increasing variation across trees, and potentially reducing the variance of our estimates

--
  
  * If our predictors are very correlated, we may want to shrink `$m$`

---
# Random Forests

Random forests thus introduce .hi-slate[two dimensions of random variation]

1. The .hi-medgrn[bootstrapped sample]

2. The `$m$` .hi-blue[randomly selected predictors] (for the split)

Everything else about random forests works just as it did with decision trees.

---
# Random Forests in R

Let's see how to train a random forest using .hi-slate[tidymodels].

Let's try and predict heart disease occurrence as a function of

.pull-left.font80[
* `age` Patient age
* `sex` Gender (`sex=1` for male)
* `chest_pain` Type of chest pain 
* `rest_bp` Resting blood pressure
* `chol` Serum cholesterol level
* `fbs` Fasting blood sugar above 120mg/dl
* `restecg` Resting ECG results
  * 0 normal, 1 have ST-T wave abnormality, 2 probable/definite left ventricular hypertrophy
* `max_hr` Max heart rate
]
.pull-right.font80[
* `ex_ang` Exercised induced angina (pain from reduced blood flow)
  * 1 yes
* `oldpeak` ST depression induced by exercise relative to rest (observed in ECG)
* `slope` Slope of the peak exercise ST segment (observed in ECG)
  * 0 upsloping, 1 flat, 2 downsloping
* `ca` Number of major vessels colored by fluoroscopy (`ca`)
* `thal` Thalium stress test result
  * 0 normal, 1 fixed defect, 2 reversible defect, 3 not described
]

---
# Random Forests in R

Let's first define our recipe and do some preprocessing.
  * .hi-medgrn[Recipe:] predict heart disease (Yes/No) as a function of everything else
  * .hi-medgrn[Cleaning:]  imput missing values (median for numeric, mode for categorical)

```r
# Impute missing values
heart_recipe <- recipe(heart_disease ~ ., data = heart_df) %>% 
 step_impute_median(all_predictors() & all_numeric()) %>% 
 step_impute_mode(all_predictors() & all_nominal())
```

Now we can use `prep()` and `juice()` to replace our data frame with the cleaned version:

```r
heart_df_clean <- heart_recipe %>% prep() %>% juice()
```

---
# Random Forests in R

You have several [options](http://topepo.github.io/caret/train-models-by-tag.html#Random_Forest) for training random forests with `tidymodels`..super[🎄]

* _E.g._ `ranger`, `randomForest`, `spark`.

`rand_forest()` accesses each of these packages via their .it[engines].

.footnote[
🎄 And even more if you look outside of `tidymodels`.
]

- The default engine is `"ranger"` ([`ranger`](https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ranger/index.html) package).

- The argument `mtry` gives `$m$`, the # of predictors at each split.

You've already seen the other hyperparameters for `ranger`:

- `trees` the number of trees in your (random) forest
- `min_n` min. # of observations

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# Random Forests in R